A New York Democrat wants to revise gun laws to encompass a downloadable plastic gun produced on a 3-D printer.

On Friday, Defense Distributed premiered its plastic firearm with only one small necessary metal part: the firing pin.

Rep. Steve Israel (D-N.Y.) wants to pour water on this invention with his Undetectable Firearms Modernization Act, which extends a 1988 ban on plastic guns that expires this year and extends it to include homemade, plastic high-capacity magazines and receivers. The piece of metal in the downloadable gun, which allows it to be spotted by metal detectors, keeps it within current law.

Security checkpoints, background checks, and gun regulations will do little good if criminals can print plastic firearms at home and bring those firearms through metal detectors with no one the wiser. When I started talking about the issue of plastic firearms months ago, I was told the idea of a plastic gun is science-fiction. Now that this technology appears to be upon us, we need to act now to extend the ban on plastic firearms,” Israel said.

Israel “revamped” his bill to make it “illegal to manufacture, own, transport, buy, or sell any firearm, receiver, or magazine that is homemade and not detectable by metal detector and/or does not present an accurate image when put through an x-ray machine.”

Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) was so alarmed by Friday’s demonstration video of the downloadable gun that he called a Sunday news conference to jump on board Israel’s bill.

“We’re facing a situation where anyone  a felon, a terrorist  can open a gun factory in their garage, and the weapons they make will be undetectable,” Schumer said. “It’s stomach churning.”

The senator clarified he doesn’t want to ban 3-D printers outright.See update on next page.

UPDATE: On CNBC today, Schumer said “at the very least” Congress needs to make it “a crime to have such a gun.”

#8220;If the police see you carrying one on the street, they’ll know it’s a crime. If anybody sees you doing it, they’ll know it’s a crime,” he said. “What we should do beyond that, I don’t know. I mean, obviously there are First Amendment issues. We’ve had this issue about bombs being put on the Internet in the past. And obviously someone could go overseas and put something on the Internet where our laws don’t govern.”

“But we have to do more than just make it a crime. I agree with that, mindful of the various constitutional and other types of constraints,” the senator continued. “And I don’t want to abolish these printers, that’s for sure, because I think by and large they do good things.”

Schumer said Congress has to investigate all ways in which guns can be made and regulate them.

“Everyone saw that John Malkovich movie, In the Line of Fire. It was a frightening movie. He spent months and months and months trying to craft a gun made of wood and plastic and figuring out a way,” he said.

“Obviously, you still have to deal with the bullets, but they could be put in a metal casing that could get through a metal detector without it ever being revealed there — a bullet. But he spent months doing this so he could assassinate the president, and the movie was frightening. He was one of the best bad guys I’ve ever seen in a movie. But now it’s real. And that’s — that’s much more frightening.”

If the police see you carrying one on the street, theyll know its a crime.

I would be embarrassed if I was seen carrying this thing on the street. And I am a CCW permit holder. It's really ugly and completely unreliable for personal protection. There is nothing practical about it....yet. Obviously this piece was a only and R&D prototype to prove the concept. The innovator certainly did make his point and in spectacular fashion. I'm proud of him.

Security checkpoints, background checks, and gun regulations will do little good if criminals can print plastic firearms at home

Hey, nitwit Representative, they're criminals; their intent is to break the law. The ONLY thing your new law would do is add an additional charge onto the stack of existing broken laws, should the cops be lucky enough to even find the perp.

60
posted on 05/07/2013 10:49:58 AM PDT
by NonValueAdded
(3 guns when you only have one arm? "I just don't want to get killed for lack of shooting back")

Fortunately the Bill of Rights was passed right after the adoption of the Constitution, so it's arguable that the Bill of Rights and other amendments supersede the Commerce Clause.

The problem here is Steve Israel lives in a small isolated, even provincial community and their peculiar local standards are simply not shared by real Americans. I'll print up all the handguns I want and he can kiss my butt!

No, they (NRA) don’t .... my point was though, that they are more likely to become that then put themselves out of existence by embracing (far right) conservative values .... which was the contention of the lib idiot who wrote the article.

On the other hand, the GOP most definitely IS actively working on their own demise .... the article would have been more accurate if that was stated, but not because of ‘far right’ leanings .... but because they are becoming indistinguishable from the Democraps. I consider myself independent these days and vote ‘conservative’, do not identify as an “R”.

How many stupid gun laws are because of movie fiction? We have “cop killer” bullet laws fro stupid movies. Plastic gun bans from stupid movies. DC politicians need to get in the real world once in a while. Idiots.

I don't think you understand the purpose of this gun. It takes its name from a cheap, single-shot pistol dropped in France during WWII. It is not meant for long and continuous service.

You mean in less than ten shots (probably one or two) it would be replaced by one of the firearms formerly carried by those enforcing the tyrants' commands? That does sound inconvenient for the far left fringe in the event that they attempted a transition to communism.

79
posted on 05/07/2013 11:12:58 AM PDT
by Pollster1
("Shall not be infringed" is unambiguous.)

I don't think you understand the purpose of this gun. It takes its name from a cheap, single-shot pistol dropped in France during WWII. It is not meant for long and continuous service.

I believe you are referring to the WWII zip gun? I have not heard this "plastic gun" that was printed on a 3D printer referred to by any name resembling that which was issued as a throw away piece in WWII. Quite frankly, that was a very cheap and limited use piece. The printed gun for this demo was anything but cheap considering the equipment and time it took. I'd hate to think this gun was designed, built and fired for any reason than to establish that it could be done.

I do not believe that it's purpose was to manufacture a cheap, single shot pistol for mass production or sale. Quite frankly, the thing is not very concealable, is not likely very reliable, and being a single shot .22, would not be a very practical self defense weapon.

Not that it matters to our putative masters in Congress, but exactly how can Congress make it illegal for you to manufacture something in your own home if it is for personal use and not for sale?

They will legislate any-and-everything! IIRC, the SCOTUS decided that a small farmer who was growing food for his own use was reducing the amount the same food being sold by other farmers in other states, so the congress COULD regulate what he was doing, and they still use that rediculous misuse of the commerce clause to claim to legislate and control EVERYTHING!

Mark

84
posted on 05/07/2013 11:23:18 AM PDT
by MarkL
(Do I really look like a guy with a plan?)

If I recall, the “Liberator” was a single shot .45 caliber metal stamping. I think the designer is just making a point by using that name. The same guy has produced the receiver for a AR-15 but said in one of his videos he wanted something totally plastic to prove it could be done.

The only zip gun I know from my much younger days was fabricated from a car antenna. Very inaccurate.

I was thinking more along the lines of the solution carved out for termites. They have a taste for metal ~ at least for anything as heavy as Zinc. They consume zinc, gold and other nanoparticles. They then circulate the zinc to their mandibles to toughen them up. They excrete the gold in their nests.

But the idea of toughing Chitin (C8H13O5N)through the process of infiltrating a harder metal into the mix is well worth studying. In some species this goes beyond the mandibles and mouthparts to the OVIPOSITOR!

“Not that it matters to our putative masters in Congress, but exactly how can Congress make it illegal for you to manufacture something in your own home if it is for personal use and not for sale?

The federal government is not granted a general police power - any federal laws are supposed to be based on the enumerated powers granted to the federal government by the Constitution. For example, the feds cant arrest and prosecute you for murder, unless the murder occurs on federal property or you murder a federal official. Most laws that the feds pass are based on the Interstate Commerce Clause, but if this is something you make yourself and keep for your own use, it doesnt qualify as interstate commerce, right?

That is not to say that states could not outlaw these weapons under the general police powers they have - although there would certainly be some 2nd Amendment problems with that approach as well.”

I have been pounding the table on this issue re background checks ever since the Demoncrats began the last gun grab push. Not sure why but it rarely is mentioned in debates.

92
posted on 05/07/2013 12:05:36 PM PDT
by allblues
(God is neither a Republican nor a Democrat but Satan is definitely a Democrat)

They already are off shore: Defense Distributed’s downloads are on Mega, Kim Dotcom’s new file sharing site.

What’s more, if FReepers attend to my advice, the CAD files with exist on thousands of computers here in the U.S.: everyone, even if you don’t expect to be able to afford a 3D printer in the next decade, even if you don’t want firearms in your house for whatever reason, download the files — do it on public wi-fi, encrypt the results under an obscure name, and delete the originals using military grade deletion if you’re worried the Feds will know you have a copy.

96
posted on 05/07/2013 3:26:40 PM PDT
by The_Reader_David
(And when they behead your own people in the wars which are to come, then you will know...)

“Not that it matters to our putative masters in Congress, but exactly how can Congress make it illegal for you to manufacture something in your own home if it is for personal use and not for sale?”

You can thank “Originalist” justice Scalia for that. He reversed Lopez in Raich to argue exactly that someone growing marijuana in their own home for their own use some how affected interstate commerce, and was therefore legitimately the subject of federal law.

The Supreme Court then used Raich to tell the 9th Circuit to reverse a decision under Lopez that building a machine gun for yourself and not for sale was not covered under the Commerce Clause.

99
posted on 05/07/2013 5:11:54 PM PDT
by marktwain
(The MSM must die for the Republic to live. Long live the new media!)

NOT TRUE! Schemer is from NY. Most people in NY think just the same way he does. It's the reason that he keeps getting reelected. And lest you think that most NYers are unaware of his anti-gun stance, look at the evile filth Carolyn McCarthy. She rans solely on an anti-gun campaign platform. She's a one trick pony, BUT she keeps getting RE-ELECTED by a majority of voters in her district. The problem isn't garbage like upChuckie and McCarthy. The problem is New Yorkers

The majority of New Yorkers (and massholes, marylanders, etc.) are anti-gun freedom haters to their very cores. They have no concept of freedom. And they loath hate and fear those who DON'T want the government's jackboots on their necks.

I find it ironic that two of the most publicised terrorist attacks occurred in NY and MA. Two states where the populations are hell bent along with the turd in the white house on destroying the nature of the USA - people who are the most sympathetic to the terrorists goals.

100
posted on 05/08/2013 4:12:58 AM PDT
by from occupied ga
(Your government is your most dangerous enemy)

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